"Labs all set up, boss" The woman who I realize is Hill says.
"I'm not exactly the boss, but thanks about the lab thing." I hold a thumbs up. Tony spins in his chair after hearing the word boss.
"Oh, actually, he's the boss," Tony points to Steve. "I just pay for everything and design everything and make everyone look cooler." Tony explains. I laugh.
"You'd also be a tyrant if we really gave you any power." I smirk.
"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asks, walking over to Hill. I follow.
"NATO's got him." Hill explains.
"The two enhanced?" Steve asks. I perk up a little.
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins," she explains. I subtly sigh in relief but I also internally smack myself. Bad thoughts! Hill hands Steve a tablet and I watch from over his shoulder, not being able to stop thinking Pietro looked cute with brown hair but silver fits him better. "Orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building," I frown at all they've gone through. We all start walking out of the jet. "Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special." Hill explains. I continue to follow them, standing next to Cap, wanting to know as much as possible.
"Their abilities?" Steve asks.
Some weird mind shit and the ability to run so fast that he would use his speed to save me. I think to myself.
"He's got increased metabolism and improved homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Hill finished. I nodded in understanding while Cap gave her a look. Hill pursed her lips.
"He's fast and she's weird." She explained in laymen's terms. He nodded.
"Well, they're gonna show up again." Cap stated.
"Agreed. Files say they volunteered for Struckers experiments. It's nuts." She says as Cap and I walk into an elevator whilst I frown as the news.
"Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country." Cap says and I try and suppress a smile.
"We're not at war, Captain." Hill says with a shake of her head. I smirk.
"They are." I say as the doors close.
I soon separate from Cap and head straight to my lab. As the doors open for me on their own, Jarvis saying,
"Welcome, Miss. O'Conner." I glare.
"We're on thin ice, buddy." I yell at him.
But my mood brightens as I'm back in my lab. I start running my hands on all of its glorious equipment.
"Hello my lab, my baby, my love." I cooe at a room. Bruce chuckles walking up next to me.
"Our lab." He reminds. We start walking towards Clint and everyone, looking down at a tablet.
"Right. Sometimes I just forget you're here." I say, at least sounding completely serious. I can feel Bruce looking at me but I don't look back. I merely smile as we reach everyone in the hospital part of the lab.
"How's he doing?" Bruce asks. I peer over at him, making sure these people aren't messing anything up.
"Unfortunately, he's still Barton." Tony sighs.
"That's terrible." Bruce fires back.
"Oh. The horror!" I say dramatically, smiling as I lean against the archway that leads to where Clint's getting treated.
"He's fine. He's thirsty." Tony comments.
"Come on, Clint. Get your own water, don't be lazy." I say. I watch as he chuckles, this time he doesn't wince.
"Sure, let me just bleed all over Tony's precious floor." I laugh, walking in to stand next to Natasha after putting on a lab coat.
"Please, I stopped your bleeding a long while ago."
"If it wasn't for you Miss. O'Conner, I'm quite positive that Clint would be dead." Dr. Cho says as she looks over the results. I look at Clint, pretending to be surprised.
"Well, look at that. I saved your life." Clint chuckles, shaking his head at me.
"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever." He responds.
We all watch as Dr. Cho's machine does its magic.
"Are you sure he's gonna be okay?" Natasha asks.
"He's fine." I mutter.
"Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together." Natasha smirks, looking down at him. I laugh.
"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra." Dr. Cho explains.
"She's creating tissue." Bruce explains in simple terms for them, looking at them in wonder. I catch Clint's eyes.
"Sorry, I can heal wounds but I can't create skin." I over-exaggerate pursing my lips. Clint chuckles quietly as they continue talking.
"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in twenty minutes." Dr. Cho says proudly.
"Do you have a helipad?" I ask blandly. Before she can answer Tony walks back in.
"Oh, he's flat-lining. Call it. Time?" Tony asks looking at his watch.
"No, no,no. I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." Clint states.
"Good. Then I won't have to pretend to cry at your funeral." I joke.
"Here's your beverage." Tony says, handing him some nasty green thing.
"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. You're own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference." Dr. Cho says.
"Well, I don't have a girlfriend." Clint says, looking away and taking a drink. I narrow my eyes at him.
"That, I can't fix," Dr. Cho says. Clint looks away again. Right at me. I raise a brow, silently asking if there's something I should know. He looks away. "This is the next thing, Tony. You're clunky metal suits are gonna he left in the dust." Dr. Cho boats.
"That is exactly the plan," Tony says. Bruce looks around, confused. "And, Helen, I expect to see you at the part on Saturday." Tony says. Oh. I understand. Was this a flirting thing?
I look over at Natasha, hoping she'll confirm my suspicions but she only looks away and takes a long sip of her drink.
"Unlike you, I don't have time for parties," Cho says, looking at him. She stammers in her movements before asking, "Will Thor be there?"
I look back down at Clint with my eyes wide as I try and stop myself from smiling in complete and utter amusement. Tony rolls his eyes before motioning Bruce and I to come with him.
He each has a hand around our shoulders as he walks us down into his workshop.
"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asks. I look at him weirdly.
"Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive," Tony explains as he walk deeper and deeper in. "So, I've been analyzing the gem inside. You may recognize," Tony continues, throwing a hologram of Jarvis' body right where Bruce was standing. He looks around himself in confusion. Bruce stands next to me.
"Jarvis." He says.
"Doctor." Jarvis greets.
"Starting out, Jarvis was just natural language UI. Now he runs on iron legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides pepper." Tony explains.
"Haven't really heard your name in this equation." I smirk. Tony pushes me lightly.
"Oh." Bruce mumbles.
"Top of the line." Tony keeps going.
"Yes." Bruce agrees.
"I suspect not for long." Jarvis says. I give Tony a look.
"Tony, get to the point." I say. Tony nods, walking over to extract something else before flinging it out next to Jarvis.
"Meet the competition." Tony says as a ginormous blue blob, about three times the size of Jarvis shows up. I gape at it.
"It's beautiful." Bruce states.
"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asks, looking at me for a moment.
"Like it's thinking." I observe.
"I mean, this could be... it's not a human mind," Tony shakes his head. "I mean, look at this. They're like neurons firing." Bruce says, looking at Tony and I.
"Down in Struckers lab, Casey and I saw some fairly advanced robots work. They deep-sixes the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door." Tony explains. My brows furrow.
"Artificial intelligence." Bruce utters. Realization dawns on me. My head snaps to look at Tony.
"Tony, no. This isn't a good idea." I warn.
"Come on, you can't say it didn't cross your mind when we were down there!" Tony fires back. I throw my hands in the air.
"Of course it did! But the difference between intelligence and stupidly is knowing how to do something, but not doing it because you know it isn't right." I ground out. Tony walks over to a thoroughly confused Bruce.
"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." Tony says quietly. Bruce kind of laughs with a weird smile on his face.
"I thought Ultron was a fantasy." Bruce says, making me groan.
"Yesterday, it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my iron legion protocol?" Tony suggests.
"That's a mad-sized If." Bruce says as he starts walking away from Tony and Jarvis. Tony and I follow him.
"Our job is if. What if you were sipping margaritas on a sub-drenched beach, turning brown instead of green. Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica." Tony kind of taunts.
"Hey! Don't do that to him." I scold. Bruce holds up his hand at me.
"Don't hate. I helped design Veronica." Bruce says as we all keep walking.
"As a worst-case measure, right? How about a best case? What if the world was safe? What if, next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?" Tony suggests him with ideas of make-believe.
"The only people threatening the planet would be people." Bruce says, liking the idea, making me groan again.
"I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But Jarvis can't download the days schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here. That's three days," Tony says. He looks down at me. "Give me three days." He practically begs.
"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team, or us to tell the team?" Bruce asks motioning between himself and I.
"Right. That's right. You know why? Because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear "the man was not meant to meddle" medley. I see a suit of armor around the world." Tony finishes.
"Sounds like a cold world, Tony." Bruce says.
"And dark." I add.
"I've seen colder, and darker. This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron." Tony says, walking away. Bruce and I look at each other for a moment.
"Peace in our time. Imagine that." Tony continues to slowly egg him on.
"You know this is a bad idea right." I whisper. Bruce sighs.
"It'll be a worse one if we don't help him." Bruce says truthfully. I sigh, wrapping my arm around his as we walk towards him.
"I hate it when your right." I mumble.